One major upside of many low carb diets, such as Rob Faigin's Natural Hormone Enhancement and The Atkins Diet, is that you do not need to reduce the amount of calories you eat. In fact, in many cases, you can increase or maintain the amount of calories you regularly consume and still rapidly lose weight.

Carbohydrates are the only thing you will have to monitor closely. If you want to sustain regular weight loss, you will need to keep your carb consumption well within the bounds of your suggested prescription from your doctor, dietitian, or low carb diet plan.

As a low carb dieter, you won't need to monitor your protein intake. If anything, you will want ensure you are consuming enough. Protein will complement your weight loss--especially if you are following some type of exercise regimen--by building muscle, which allows you to burn fat much faster.

If your muscles are sore after your regular exercise regimen, you should try to boost your protein intake. Otherwise, you are probably consuming enough--and this is not something you need to worry about.

Another thing you should consider is whether or not you are getting enough exercise. Building muscle can seriously expedite your weight loss, especially when you are on a low carb, high protein diet. If you havent started one already, you should consider adding some minor aerobic exercise--such as walking 3-5 times each week-- and weight training--such as squats and bench presses--to your dietary plan, even if it isnt required.

The last thing you need to consider is your fat intake. While most low carb diets dont give any suggested fat-calorie caps, they will tell you to eat a "moderate" amount--and to stick mainly to good fats.

This is pretty unspecific, but it heres what it means: there are some "good" fats, such as the ones you can find in fish, nuts, and seeds. These are healthy to eat, and you can find them in foods with high protein content. Eat as much of these as you want.

There are also some "bad" fats, such as the ones you find in eggs, bacon, sausage, and meats. Eat enough of these to satiate your hunger and prevent cravings, but dont over-do it.

You may want to schedule regular doctors appointments during your diet, so you can monitor your cholesterol.

To reiterate: if you want to be successful with a low carb diet, you should strictly monitor your carbohydrate intake; however, there are no strict rules on how much fat or protein you should consume, so you wont need to count calories before you eat --in fact, in most cases, you will know immediately whether or not you should eat something. An exercise regimen, while not necessary, could greatly expedite your weight loss by taking advantage of your diets high-protein content.